PREFACE. 



The method of explaining to visitors the general appearance and 

 the details of the external features of insects by means of models 

 on a large scale, rather than by the more customary drawings, 

 was first adopted by Sir E. Ray Lankester, Director of the 

 Museum, in the year 1900. The earliest models were those of two 

 mosquitoes and a tsetse-fly. After Sir Ray Lankester's retirement 

 in December 1907, the method was followed up by the preparation 

 of a model of a flea (presented by the Entomological Research 

 Committee) ; more recently, models of a house-fly and a tick 

 have been added. During the present year the series of disease- 

 spreading insects and ticks has been further increased by placing 

 on view a collection of specimens and models of tsetse-flies, 

 tabanid flies, mosquitoes and ticks ; this collection was prepared, 

 on behalf of the Exhibitions Branch of the Board of Trade, in 

 1913, under the direction of Mr. E. E. Austen, Assistant in the 

 Department of Entomology, and was showm in the " Tropical 

 Diseases " Section of the International Exhibition at Ghent in 

 the summer of that year. The models have been kindly lent to 

 the Museum by the Board. 



Only those insects and ticks that are of importance in the 

 spread of disease have been selected for exhibition in the middle 

 of the Central Hall ; the general series of insects and ticks is 

 to be found in the Arthropod Gallery, in the West Wing of the 

 Museum ; the collection of insects injurious to crops is exhibited 

 in the North Hall. 



The large models shown in the Hall w^ere constructed 

 under the supervision of expert entomologists by Mrs. E. D. 

 Blackman and Miss Grace Edwards, and so far as is possible 

 they are correct in the smallest details. 



The present guide-book is to a large extent a compilation, made 

 by Dr. W. G. Ridewood, of the exhibited labels that accompany 

 the insects and the models. 



The acknowledgments of the Trustees are due to Drs. Castellani 

 and Chalmers for permission to use the figures of the house-fly, 

 bed-bug and tick given in their Manual of Tropical Medicine. 



L. FLETCHER, 



Director. 

 British ^Iuseum (Natural History), - 

 December, 1915. 



